Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to radio frequency (RF) communications and, more specifically, to dynamically configurable antennas.
Description of the Related Art
Conventional antennas may be found in a wide variety of devices and other types of machines, including cellular phones, tablet computers, desktop and laptop computers, televisions, WiFi™ routers, wearable computers, automobiles, airplanes, satellites, and so forth. Such devices and machines typically rely on one or more antennas to transmit and receive data using radio frequency RF signals.
When designing a conventional antenna, a designer or team of designers typically analyzes a set of tradeoffs between various design objectives and different design constraints. The design objectives for a given antenna may include requirements related to the range, spectrum, directionality, and other operating characteristics associated with the transmission and/or reception of RF signals. The design constraints for the antenna generally reflect limitations related to the size, weight, volume, surface area, power consumption, and other restrictions dictated by the specific use case of the antenna. By analyzing the design objectives in light of the design constraints, the designers attempt to select a particular antenna geometry that strikes an appropriate balance between the objectives and constraints.
One problem with the above approach is that the design constraints usually limit the selection of antenna geometries to those with narrowly defined operating characteristics, such as a narrow spectrum of operating frequencies and/or a limited directionality. Consequently, devices and machines that include conventional antennas oftentimes have narrow transmission and/or reception capabilities, resulting in acceptable performance only within a narrow scope of use cases.
As the foregoing illustrates, what is needed in the art is more effective antenna design that addresses one or more of the problems set forth above.